UK – The National Grid pension fund has appointed Morley Fund Management to run a 300 million-pound (424 million euro) fixed income mandate, resulting in a loss for J P Morgan Fleming Asset Management.

The mandate follows a re-allocation of assets by the trustees of the one-billion pound scheme. Previously F&C Management, Newton Investment Management and J P Morgan Fleming Asset Management managed around 30% of the fund each, investing in both equities and bonds.

Ten percent was held in non-unitised assets. Under the new structure, Newton and F&C have retained around 30%, but these assets are invested solely in equities. The remaining 30% held by J P Morgan was switched to a specialist bond portfolio won by Morley.

The mandate is split between 50% index-linked gilts, 17% conventional gilts and 33% corporate bonds. The lead fund manager is Trevor Welsh and the objective of the fund is to outperform the composite benchmark by 0.75% a year over three-year rolling periods.

Morley was chosen to run the mandate, as “they demonstrated a proven ability in managing a diverse range of bond sectors,” said Chris Spencer, chairman of the group trustees’ investment committee.

Morley has a team of 47 fixed income investment professionals with 53 billion pounds (75 billion euros) of fixed income assets under management.

Elsewhere, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers has been appointed to run a 40 million pound (57 million euro) multi-asset charity portfolio for the Greater Glasgow NHS Endowment Fund.

Topics